Finland and Canada will provide hundreds of millions to purchase ammunition for Ukraine at the initiative of the Czech Republic.

At the beginning of the year, Prague found 800,000 artillery shells in third countries outside the European Union, which it wanted to buy for Ukraine. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told Czech reporters in Brussels on Monday that he had so far received funding from partners to buy the first 300,000 units and that another 500,000 units were under negotiation. About twenty countries have joined the buyout so far, from Canada to Germany or the Netherlands and from Luxembourg to Poland.

“We specifically discussed the Czech munitions initiative. Finland is contributing 30 million euros to this initiative,” Finnish Defense Minister Hakanen told X after the meeting with Řehka.

Now Canada Reuters It bought about 40,000 155-millimeter artillery shells for Ukraine through its own stocks and the US government.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmihal expressed confidence that thanks to the Czech effort, Ukrainian troops will have enough ammunition to defend their defense lines from April against an enemy with superior firepower.

Efforts to provide military aid to Ukraine could be strengthened by the upcoming EU summit, also building on a recent Czech initiative. This was reported in the traditional “pre-summit” letter sent by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, to the Presidents and Prime Ministers.

According to a preliminary version of the results, the two-day summit, which starts in Brussels on Thursday, is seen as implicitly praising the Czech initiative.